Reuters Editor Discusses Social Media Etiquette For Professionals

@elizadushkuAlthough social media has been playing an integral role in the professional world for awhile now, proper protocol for specific situations can still be confusing.

That's true especially if you're representing a company.

For example, if you accidentally tweeted something out, do you delete it, or send out a second tweet to correct the first one?

Anthony De Rosa, social media editor for Reuters, candidly answered questions from readers on the popular "Ask Me Anything" thread on Reddit about social media etiquette and the future role of Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Reddit for professionals.

We've selected some of the best questions and answers, edited only for clarity.

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Q: How do you handle personal opinion on Twitter? Is there a line you have to be aware of as someone representing Reuters or any organization?

Q: What are your thoughts on the long-term future of Google+?

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A: Good. I am not that active a user but I think this is different [from] their previous failures, like Buzz. I can see where they're going, they're not there yet, but it fills a niche we lost with BBS and message boards starting to fall near the wayside. Facebook could do this as well, and it does with groups, but I think Google has a bigger potential as being a more "open" network, and honestly Facebook will always turn some people off because of the privacy issues.

I often forget to use it, Twitter is my jam 99 percent of the time. Maybe that's just personal preference, but I see myself using G+ more if it catches on with a more diverse audience (beyond tech and news geeks).

Q: How do you deal with being constantly connected and in the loop with balancing your own personal time? Are you anxious about missing things?

A: I make sure I unplug regularly. When I am out and around other people, I don't fiddle with my phone, though this seems to be really prevalent these days with just about everyone and it sucks. I try to stay off the grid on the weekends unless there's some major news I need to cover, same goes for evenings.

Q: How much do you think Reddit now influences top news stories in comparison with other social media sites?

A: Reddit is extremely influential. The way that Reddit has stayed relevant and become such a great beacon for news is partially the strict filtering and because of the community it has built.

The community does an amazing job self-managing what's worthy of attention. I don't know that it's something you can easily duplicate. There's some kind of strange secret sauce that Alexis developed. If the President of the United States is coming here to answer questions, you're doing something right.

Q: To what extent do you use, Twitter, Facebook and Google+?

A: I still use the old Tweetdeck (0.38.1) and really dislike the new one with a passion. I use lists and am still frustrated with Twitter limiting how many lists you can build on one account.

I don't really get much news value out of Facebook or G+, they're not realtime enough, I can't really organize them as well as Twitter. Facebook can be good for finding some long form reads and for contacting people, researching. G+ really doesn't do anything for me at the moment.

Q: Do you think a lot of companies, both media and non-media companies, are too concerned with "social media" as a major strategy?

A: I think they're looking at the wrong metrics. Followers are a poor metric — there are people with few followers but the followers they have are influential, [who] rebroadcast that person's feed to a wider audience.

It's more important to look at the content than the numbers around it, which are often misleading. Often you'll see people follow hundreds of thousands of people just to artificially increase their own follower count.

Q: What direction would you like to see social media take in regards to journalists? Are there any specific features that you've been dying to get your hands on?

A: Better tools for finding geolocated media (photos, videos), though I think Geofeedia is pretty nice for this right now. I'd like to see Twitter and Facebook build better search tools. I'd like Twitter to lift the List limit.

I think we're going to see things like UStream and other live streaming play a bigger role in reporting. I think someone like Tim Pool has been a pioneer in this space. I would like to see more reporters use it and do more instantaneous on-the-ground reporting without a camera crew and producer.

I think I'd like to see us stop talking so much about the future of news and just do it. It might be messy at times, you'll screw up, but we're too precious about it right now.

Q: Because platforms like Twitter have given a voice to on-the-ground reports from people who aren't professional journalists, how has your role as an editor changed?

A: It's made my job a whole lot more interesting and valuable. I rely on those people for information when we don't have our own folks on the ground.

I obviously need to verify they are who they say they are and corroborate that information using good old-fashioned journalism, but having access to and making sense of these reports is one of the things I love most about my job.